The intersection of fine art and professional athletics is typically an uncharted territory, but the National Football League is rewriting the playbook through a striking new initiative. Artist Jammie Holmes’s Untitled (2024)—a poignant painting that explores the fleeting nature of beauty and success through the depiction of a child emerging from morning glory flowers—is undergoing a monumental physical transformation. A giant version of the work, painstakingly hand-painted onto strips of football field turf, is crossing the Atlantic from New York City to Paris, destined for a high-profile public activation that marries sports culture with contemporary artistic expression.
The turf adaptation of Holmes’s work was commissioned by the NFL as the flagship piece for "Color Field," a newly minted initiative designed to bridge the gap between gridiron spectacle and the global fine art community. The supersized artwork is scheduled to be rolled out across the end zones of a regulation flag football field positioned directly beneath the Eiffel Tower. The installation will be on view on October 23 and 24 as part of the NFL Experience Paris, a free public event engineered to build anticipation for the league’s historic first-ever regular season game played in the French capital on October 25.
The Paris installation is merely the beginning of the league’s broader exhibition plans for the initiative. In December, another iteration of the Color Field concept, featuring a different contemporary artist, will be rolled out on a field at the Art Basel Miami Beach annual show. According to Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s senior VP of global social, creator and content, more giant murals could start popping up on fields throughout the regular season, depending on the public and cultural reaction to this initial launch.
This aggressive fusion of sport and culture arrives during a landmark season for the league. The current schedule features the NFL’s most heavily international game lineup ever, encompassing nine games played across Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City. Significantly, the first three of these international destinations represent entirely new markets for the organization. As the league rapidly expands its footprint across the globe, its marketing team is continuously looking for innovative ways to broaden its digital audience reach. By launching Color Field, the organization is tapping into an unexpected yet increasingly enthusiastic crossover between the worlds of American football and the fine arts, creating visually arresting moments designed to resonate far beyond traditional sports broadcasting.
A Giant Turf Mural Lands in Paris
"Art" and "football" are two words that do not usually appear in the same sentence, let alone define a collaborative enterprise. However, according to Trombetta, the foundational concept for Color Field was sparked several years ago when the league noticed a burgeoning, organic legion of dedicated artists within its online fandom.
During the unprecedented challenges and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the league observed a surge of creative expression from supporters across digital platforms. Fans were independently creating their own distinctive NFL-inspired artwork and posting it widely online. This grassroots movement caught the attention of league executives, prompting a strategic rethink about how to engage with these creative communities during a time of widespread physical disconnection.
"During the pandemic, we noticed that there were a lot of fans who were creating their own NFL art and they were posting it online," Trombetta explains, reflecting on the origins of the creative outreach. "We started to think about ways in which we could celebrate those folks, especially because we weren’t in an environment where we could be with people, and it was such an odd, different time. We started to take in the best submissions and we would post them online."
What began as a digital curation effort to highlight fan creativity eventually morphed into a more formal, institutional platform. This insight led to the creation of Artist Replay, an annual event launched in 2023 that brings artists inspired by the NFL, along with their physical works, into a dedicated exhibition space. The program has steadily grown in stature and scope, featuring contributions from a diverse roster of established and emerging creative talents. Past participants in Artist Replay include contemporary artists such as Calvin Clausell Jr., Kayla Mahaffey, and McFlyy. The initiative has also successfully drawn from within the football ecosystem itself, highlighting the creative pursuits of active players like Marco Wilson, a cornerback on the Carolina Panthers practice squad, and former players like Martellus Bennett, who have channeled their artistic visions outside the traditional confines of the sport.
As Color Field takes flight toward Paris, carrying Jammie Holmes’s exploration of transience and beauty onto a canvas of artificial turf beneath one of the world’s most famous monuments, the NFL continues to test the boundaries of how a sports league can interact with global culture. By elevating contemporary artists onto the playing field, the league is seeking to redefine the visual language of football for a new generation of international fans.
